HUGH P. GALLAGHER.

BY P. F. P.

REV

EV. HUGH P. GALLAGHER was born in the County Donegal, Ireland, in the year 1815. From his tender years he manifested a desire to devote his life and energies to the sacred ministry. He was distinguished for his assiduity and rapid advancement in English and classical learning. When quite young he left his paternal home with letters dimissory from his bishop, to seek a new and wider field in which to labor in the cause of religion. He landed in America in 1837, and immediately entered the Theological Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, in Philadelphia. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed Professor of the Latin and Greek languages in that Seminary.

Whilst prosecuting his ecclesiastical studies in that institution, he possessed advantages of which he did not fail to profit. At that time, Most Rev. F. P. Kenrick, the late Archbishop of Baltimore, whose literary fame is not limited by the boundaries of our Continent, but holds high place in every kingdom of Europe, was President of the Seminary. His brother, the Most Rev. Peter R. Kenrick, the present venerable and learned Archbishop of St. Louis, was Rector of the Seminary. Rt. Rev. E. Barron, afterwards Bishop of Liberia, in Africa, was Professor of Moral Theology, and Rt. Rev. M. O'Connor, the first Bishop of Pittsburg, Professor of Dogmatic Theology. These illustrious men, by their writings and missionary labors, have done much to place the Catholic Church, in the United States, in its present elevated and

dignified position. Under the instruction and influence. of such tutors, did our young Levite live and learn, during his whole collegiate career, until he was elevated to the priesthood in 1840.

From this date, Father Gallagher, as we shall now call him, entered upon the duties of a Catholic Pastor. He was appointed, for his first Mission, to the parish of Pottsville, at that time one of the largest and most important congregations in the interior of Pennsylvania. Here was a field wherein to exercise his zeal. This was the centre of the great coal district of Eastern Pennsylvania. Thousands and tens of thousands of operatives had gathered there from every quarter of the globe. Many of them were addicted to the frightful vice of intemperance, the prolific source of broils, fights, bloodshed and murder.

Father Gallagher's compassionate heart was moved by the misery and scandal produced by these excesses, and he resolved to use his utmost efforts to stem this tide of vice and immorality, which threatened to sweep over the land, bringing ruin and desolation in its course. With the skill and prudence of a more matured experience, he commenced a course of instructions on the virtue of temperance. He spoke with such paternal affection and pleaded with such pathetic earnestness, that more than five thousand hardy miners came forward and pledged themselves to total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks. The improved condition and regularity of conduct of these teetotalers had a happy influence in winning over many of the votaries of inebriety to enlist under the temperance banner.

In the following year, Father Gallagher was appointed to govern a parish in western Pennsylvania. Here also his efforts in the cause of temperance were crowned with success. His labors were of the most trying character, as he was obliged to travel over a great extent of country to visit the different congregations entrusted to his pastoral charge. One of a less robust constitution would have succumbed under the incessant calls made on his time, both by day and night.

All Catholics, who are sick

and dying, have a right to the services of the priest at whatever hour he may be cailed. It was not an unfrequent occurrence with Father Gallagher, after being worn down and exhausted with the arduous labors of Sunday, celebrating the late Mass, preaching, teaching the catechism, singing vespers, instructing the young and ignorant, and in various other duties, to be called out in a pitiless storm, to visit a dying person some fifteen or twenty miles distant, and to make this journey not unfrequently on a trackless road over snow-clad hills.

In 1844. Father Gallagher was called by his ecclesiastical superior to Pittsburg, to take charge of the Theological Seminary. His duties here were of no ordinary kind, for he was not only the President of the Institution, charged with its management and discipline, but occupied different chairs of instruction, and at the same time had care of a large parish. About this time, a concerted opposition to the Catholic Church and to the rights of Catholics, citizens of the United States, was organized under the name of the Native American Party. The Churh, her institutions and her teachings, were maliciously misrepresented, and Catholics were held up to the scorn and contempt.of their fellow-citizens throughout the land. The press and the pulpit were equally fierce and unjust in their attacks on Catholics. Pittsburg was without a newspaper to defend the rights of Catholics, or to give an honest and fair statement of the doctrines and discipline of the Church.

Under these circumstances, Father Gallagher was waited on by many prominent citizens, who earnestly solicited him to cooperate with them in establishing a paper devoted to the exposition of the real doctrines of the Catholic Church, and to its vindication from the multiplied slanders and calumnies of a misguided press. The financial part of the undertaking they promised to attend to, provided Father Gallagher would undertake the editorial department. Weighed down, as he was, by his numerous occupations, he might well have refused this new burden; but not so: the interests of the Church, of his fellow-Catholics, and the enlightenment of his fellow-cit

izens generally. demanded his aid, and he would not, even if he could, resist their imperative appeal. The Pittsburg Catholic was then established, and, under the editorial management of Father Gallagher, attained an enviable reputation. Its influence was soon felt. The fires of religious intolerance were subdued, the voice of calumny silenced, the bitterness of fanaticism mitigated, and men blushed for the ignorance by which they were impelled to acts of violence and injustice. Peace and good will succeeded to strife and hatred. These happy results were due, in a great measure, to the course which Father Gallagher adopted. The editorials of the "Catholic" were plain, clear, outspoken expositions of doctrine, whilst the answers to assailants were the embodiment of Christian charity, pitying rather than censuring, the deluded spirit which animated them. The demon of discord and religious animosity disappeared, we hope never again to visit our land, fanning the flames of burning churches, asylums, or convents.

This great task being accomplished, Father Gallagher was called on by his bishop to complete the work commenced by the Reverend and illustrious Prince Gallitzen, in Loretto. Prince Gallitzen belonged to the noble house of Gallitzen, in Russia. Honors, position and fame awaited him, had he remained in the Greek Church; but this his conscience forbade for after examining all the arguments, pro and con, and devoutly and perseveringly imploring the assistance of Divine light, he was convinced that the Roman Catholic Church was the only Church which had claims to Divine origin. He, therefore, renounced honors, country and home, to become an humble missionary in the then wilds of Pennsylvania. His work was blessed by Almighty God. A flourishing congregation grew up under his pastoral care. To succeed such a devoted missionary and carry on his great undertaking, was Father Gallagher now called. He set to work with an indomitable spirit, that neither knew nor courted repose.

The mantle of the illustrious Gallitzen had fallen on a worthy successor. The work of his ministry was bless

As the congregation was

ed, and diffused blessings. growing large and important, it became necessary to establish schools. To this end, Father Gallagher purchased an extensive tract of land, and erected thereon a commodious building for a boarding and day school. He invited the Sisters of Mercy to take charge of it, which invitation they accepted; and in a very brief period, he had the satisfaction of witnessing St. Aloysius' Academy for young ladies in full operation, crowded with boarders and day scholars, diffusing the blessings of a sound moral and religious education.

The male children were now to be provided for. The energies of Father Gallagher were again taxed to supply this desideratum. For this purpose he devoted a large farm belonging to the church, and had the necessary buildings erected. This for him was an easy task; but how was he to procure teachers? A merciful Providence, which seemed to guide and bless all his undertakings, came to his relief. A community of Franciscan Brothers in Ireland had determined to found a home of their Order in the United States. This coming to the knowledge of Father Gallagher, he immediately invited them to Loretto; whither they came and opened the St. Francis' College. This school now ranks among the foremost of educational establishments in the East. The Legislature of Pennsylvania chartered it, conferring on it University privileges. Its graduates now shine bright among the literati of the Atlantic States. These two institutions are proud monuments of the zeal of Father Gallagher in the cause of education. The labors of our good Father in this portion of the Lord's vineyard culminated in the erection of a magnificent church, whose massive walls and lofty spires will proclaim "His praise from generation to generation."

In 1850, the Rev. Father, with that indefatigable zeal which characterized him, started a Catholic newspaper at Summitville, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, called the Crusader, aided in its editorial management by the late Rev. Thos. McCullough, and the Right Rev. Dr. Mullen, present bishop of Erie. As the name imports, these gifted